BACE1 and Alzheimer disease: BACE1 has been well characterized in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease, since it is one of the main enzymes responsible for the processing of the amyloid precursor protein and for the generation of amyloid beta plaques, a pathological hallmark of the disease (Sinha and Lieberburg, 1999; Vassar et al., 1999; Yan et al., 1999; Cai et al., 2001; Luo et al., 2001; Roberds et al., 2001).